O'er the gay scene th' enamour'd inmates roam : Many a gleam of sprightly thought. Or nursed by shades of darksome wood, Like common breath to mingle with the air: Yet still those Goddesses' peculiar care, Retired to yonder grassy mound In leaves of dusky hue encompass'd round, The covert hollows of the bosom'd hill With liquid voice and magic hand Calliope informs the band: Hush'd are the warblers of the grove, attentive to the sound. • Soft and slow Let the melting measures flow, Nor lighter air disturb majestic woe. And thou, sage Priestess* of our holy åre, Who saw'st the Poet's flame expire. Thy precious drops profusely shed O'er his well-deserving head, Thou nurtur'dst once a grateful throng, When Milton pour'd the sweets of song, Cambridge University, where Gray died. Now wake the faithful lyre--mute Dulness reigns: Your echoes waft no more the friendly theme: Clogg'd with thick vapours from the neighb'ring plains, Where old Cam hardly moves his sluggard stream. But when some public cause Claims festive song or more melodious tear, Nc'er modell'd by Pierian laws, Then idly glares full many a motley toy, Victim of hasty fate, Whom now the powers of melody deplore; Thou bad'st thy train divine Of raptures on Pindaric pinions soar: To childhood's careless scenes,t 'Or when thy calm and steadfast mind Self pleasing vanities resign'd, Fond of the look, that loves the ground ; Discern'd by Reason's equal light, How gaudy Fortune cheats the sight; While the coarse maid, innured to pain, Supports the lab'ring heart, and Virtue's happiest reign But most the music of thy plantive moang As lost in thought thou wander'st all alone Where spirits hover round their mansions drear. * See Gray's Pindaric Odes, † Ode on a distant prospect of Eton College. ↑ Hymu to Advers.ty. § Church-yard Elegy. By Contemplation's eye serenely view'd, Each loway object wears an awful mien: "Tis our own bandness veils the latent good: The works of Nature need but to be seen. Thou saw'st her deaming from the hamlet-sires Beneath those rugged elms, that yew tree's shade; Where now. still faithful to their wonted fires,* Thy own dear ashes are for ever laid.' STANZAS ON THE DEATH OF MR. GRAY. By a Lady. WHERE sleeps the Bard who graced Museus' hearse No; with the Nine inwrapp'd in social woe, With them he mourns, with them his eyes o'erflow, Of sacred poesy and moral song, They taught the youth on eagle wing to soar, Fancy, obedient to the dread command, With brilliant Genius, marshall'd forth his way: They lured his steps to Cambria's once-famed land, And sleeping Druids felt his magic lay. But vain the magic lay, the warbling lyre, Imperious Death! from thy fell grasp to save; He knew, and told it with a Poet's fire, The paths of glory lead but to the grave.' * Gray was buried at Stoke, the scene of the Elegy. G 2 And shall the Bard, whose sympathizing mind THE TEARS OF GENIUS: AN ODE. By Mr. Tuite. ON Cam's fair banks, where Learning's hallow Beneath the covert of the sylvan shade, Where deadly cypress, mix'd with mournful ye Far o'er the vale a gloomy stillness spread, Celestial Genius burst upon the view. The bloom of youth, the majesty of years, The soften'd aspect, innocent and kind, The sigh of sorrow, and the streaming tears, In her fair hand a silver harp she bore, Whose magic notes, soft-warbling from the string, Give tranquil joy the breast ne'er knew before, Or raise the soul on rapture's airy wing. By grief impell'd, I heard her heave a sigh, While thus the rapid strain resounded through the sky; For Haste, ye sister powers of song, Hasten from the shady grove, Sweetly to the voice of love. On the downy bed of ease. graver strains prepare the plantive lyre, Rack'd by the hand of rude Disease The blissful Muse, whose favouring smile In Transport's radiant garments drest, Sinks in the shades of night, and shuns his eager gaze. The gaudy train, who wait on Spring, Tinged with the pomp of vernal pride, The youths who mount on Pleasure's wing,t With cool regard their various arts employ, Nor rouse the drooping mind, nor give the pause of joy, |